Only 3 of 16 schools in region have approved teacher, principal evaluation plans as deadline looms

NEW PALTZ, N.Y. -- As winter breaks approach, the Kingston, New Paltz, and Catskill school districts are the only three districts out of 16 in the region that have received approval from the state Education Department on controversial new teacher and principal evaluation systems.

The deadline to get approval from the agency is Jan. 17, and districts that do not have the new state-mandated performance reviews that tie test scores to evaluation grades in place by then will lose state aid increases they got in 2012, which generally amounted to a 1 to 4 percent boost.

Ulster BOCES Superintendent Charles Khoury said on Friday the Highland, Wallkill, and Ellenville school districts all have submitted agreements with their unions, and he or one of his deputies has sat in on state Education Department reviews of the proposals.

Khoury described the reviews as "extremely thorough" and said the three districts had only very minor revisions to make. He anticipated the districts having no trouble getting final approval if the revisions are resubmitted by this afternoon.

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The Rondout Valley and Saugerties school districts both came to agreements on new evaluation systems with district unions last week.

The typical review period has been four weeks, but Khoury said state education officials are being reassigned from all departments to expedite the process for stragglers with time running out.

"For the folks in Albany, it's all hands on deck," said Khoury.

Khoury said the last he heard, 90 percent of New York school districts had submitted evaluation agreements, and half of those districts have received approval.

Khoury said state Education Commissioner John King has told him the wait time to get final approval will depend on how many districts still need the agency's sanction over the last few weeks. If the agency is swamped with 500 applications at the end of the time frame, Khoury said it may take a couple of weeks to get through them all, but if that number falls to 100, the process may take only "a couple days."

Onteora Superintendent Phyllis Spiegel McGill said she believes district and union officials are close to an agreement, but she did not want to talk about particulars of negotiations.

More than completing the evaluation system by the deadline, "it is really important we get a good product," said McGill.

McGill remained hopeful the district can get approval before the window closes, but if that does not happen, "I hope the state will understand."

McGill objected to what she called an artificial timeline, since the approvals are due before the evaluations will happen.

In Northern Dutchess, Rhinebeck Superintendent Joseph Phelan said the district came to an agreement with the teachers union in late October, and he anticipated an agreement with principals, after which the systems would be promptly submitted to the state Education Department.

According to the state Education Department, teachers can be classified as "highly effective," "effective," "developing," or "ineffective" under the new evaluation system, and the ratings will be a significant factor in employment decisions like tenure, job retention and promotions. Teachers who are rated ineffective in consecutive years could be fired.

Khoury said he has informally heard from some superintendents that the holdups on some agreements have been because union leaders wanted to tie the evaluation agreements to broader contract negotiations, although he said it is his understanding that New York State United Teachers has discouraged that approach among locals because of the consequences of not getting a deal done in time.

Districts that do not have state approval in time will have planned state aid increases for the current school year withheld from their June state aid payments, said Khoury.

Khoury said school officials have a legal responsibility to maintain balanced budgets, so state aid falling through could result in immediate cuts.

In all, local school districts that did not have official ratification from the state on evaluations as of Friday afternoon were Hyde Park, Rhinebeck, Red Hook, Pine Plains, Germantown, Hunter-Tannersville, Rondout Valley, Onteora, Ellenville, Wallkill, Marlboro, Saugerties, and Highland.